A Russian lawmaker has expressed doubts about the effectiveness of a newly-formed Saudi-led coalition allegedly set up to counter terrorism.

Konstantin Kosachyov, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federation Council of Russia, the upper house of the parliament, expressed regret in message posted on his Facebook page on Tuesday that Iran and Iraq are absent from the alliance.

Without the participation of Tehran and Baghdad, “in any case, it is impossible to speak about the coalition's ability to act and its efficiency,” Kosachyov stated.

“I would like to remind you that Russia is actively cooperating with these countries (Iran and Iraq), and our joint actions are admittedly more effective than those made earlier by another 'coalition' - a US-led one,” the Russian official said.

Since September 2014, the United States along with some of its allies has been conducting airstrikes against what are said to be positions of the Takfiri Daesh terrorists inside Syria, without any authorization from the government in Damascus or a UN mandate.

The campaign in Syria is an extension of a similar US-led series of aerial operations against purported Daesh positions in Iraq, which started in August 2014. The effectiveness of the US-led campaign has come under question as locals say the Syrian infrastructure has been targeted in most cases.

On the contrary, Russia has been conducting airstrikes against terrorist positions in Syria since September 30, upon a request from Damascus. The Syrian government has confirmed that since the beginning of the Russian campaign, militants have begun to retreat.

‘War on terror cannot be pretext’

The Russian official’s remarks came on the same day that Saudi Arabia announced the establishment of a new “Islamic military alliance,” headquartered in Riyadh, to purportedly combat terrorism.

The coalition is comprised of 34 countries, including Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan, Mali, Chad, Somalia and Nigeria.

“Anti-terror cannot be a pretext or a ‘cover-up operation.’ It can only be a goal. This is not happening at this point, and not through our fault, although there have been more than enough attempts to shoulder the blame for all recent failures on to Russia,” Kosachyov stated.

Germany’s reaction to the Saudi-led coalition

Meanwhile, Germany’s Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen told German broadcaster ZDF that the Saudi-led alliance would be of help if it joined other states battling Daesh.

“I think it’s right that the opposition is forming a group but it needs to be - and this is important - part of the Vienna process that includes all countries fighting against IS (Daesh) like the US, Europe, Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia but also Iran and China,” said the German minister.

Two rounds of international talks on the foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria were held in the Austrian capital, Vienna, on October 30 and November 14.